


Doesn't Mean I Gotta Like You

by innusiq



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-26 22:38:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18726268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/innusiq/pseuds/innusiq
Summary: ***Endgame Spoilers*** Even though the block-out is being lifted tomorrow, just in case you are a person who hasn't been spoiled to date ***Endgame Spoilers***I kept hearing about the #notmysteve or #notmysteverogers, but all I kept thinking is #notmypeggycarter, because seriously... Peggy... Come on, our girl is a little smarter and stronger than one Steven Grant Rogers.  In short, I'm not 100% shocked by what happened in the final scene, but I'm also not happy about it either.  So, this is my little fix-it with a dash of humor... I think there's humor, because even with all the fix-its out there to date, I still get a bit weepy reading them, and I'm tired of being weepy.





	Doesn't Mean I Gotta Like You

Nothing in this world, or _timeline_ as the case may be, should have the ability to surprise James Buchanan Barnes anymore. Not after surviving a plummet from a moving train back in World War II, being wiped and brainwashed over and over and placed in and out of cryo-freeze for decades while being forced into _shaping the new world_ in the name of Hydra (or whoever had him at the time), miraculously breaking free of the enemies hold, losing himself, finding himself and being saved from himself by the advanced science and technology hidden away in Wakanda, and even fighting a war, losing his life with millions others only to rise from the ashes and finding that same war still raging strong. No, at this stage of living in the _future_ , nothing should come as any shock or surprise to a man over one hundred years in age.

Aside from all the reasons in the world he shouldn’t be surprised, Bucky still finds he _is_ surprised when the past suddenly spits Steve Rogers back out to the present, to see his _best friend since childhood_ suddenly reappear on his hands and knees in the middle of the time machine’s platform, perhaps a few counts past the strategically planned five seconds, but still there nonetheless, gasping for a steading breath and looking a little bit lost and slightly confused. Then, meeting Bucky’s eyes searching, searching for what Bucky isn’t completely certain but in the same breath, harbors a hopeful idea (prayer) that maybe in this lifetime everything will finally fall into place. Then again, beyond all he’s been through in the lifetimes he’s lived, maybe (just maybe) he is that, _surprised_ , because when they shared their parting words not even five minutes ago, Steve trying to be reassuring and Bucky expressing what he could, admitting in grim looks and a not so much smile but an accepting upturn of his mouth, the knowledge of what Steve was about to do without saying the words he should have said, this is not what he expected. In that barely there parting moment shared between two men the history books claimed to be _inseparable on the playground and battlefield_ , Bucky had been betting on never seeing Steve again in this lifetime (or ever). Their parting words being a nod to their past, foreshadowing a future (or now their soon to be past again) where one of them planned to travel where the other couldn’t follow.

“B-Bucky?”

Arms folding across this chest, Bucky snorts and shakes his head, averting his eyes toward the ground to clear the millions of thoughts racing and warring around his head, to steel some courage and stave off the automatic forgiveness he knows is there and will come eventually, even if right now he doesn’t want to give it. Bucky _will_ forgive Steve, there is no doubt or question in his mind, in his heart, about that but it’s the burning ache he can still feel deep within his chest from watching Steve disappear barely minutes ago that has Bucky holding off. He can admit to being relieved seeing his friend, his heart, his whole world, staring back at him, but it doesn’t erase the choice Bucky knows Steve had made. 

“She sent you packing, didn’t she?”

Steve blinks owlishly up at Bucky, eyes wide in shock, and maybe a bit of guilt and relief over being saved from making the biggest mistake, biggest _regret_ of his life, of which Bucky is preferring the latter because it would serve Steve right, a good swift kick in the pants by the strongest woman, aside from their own mothers and one Natasha Romanov (God rest their souls), either of them knew.

“She kicked your ass back here so fast your head is still spinning, didn’t she?” Bucky continues with a smirk. “Smart woman, that Peggy Carter. Lucky woman actually, seeing as I’m the one now who’s gonna be stuck with your punk-ass ‘ _til the end of the line_. I ought to kick your ass right back to her after the stunt you just pulled.”

Steve scrambles to his feet, making strides to descend the machine and close the distance between them. “Buck… I… I don’t… I mean… I didn’t…I’m sor…"

Buck backs away, maintaining the distance with his left hand stretch out in warning to Steve to give him space. “Yeah, well… you’ve got a lot more groveling to do than a simple _I’m sorry I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face but I love you_ before I even think about forgiving you.” 

He turns then to begin the trek back up to Stark’s cabin, against every fiber in his being wanting to turn back around and wrap Steve up in a hug he may never let the other man out of again.

“Buck, I do… I love you,” Steve tries again, admitting something it took nearly tearing them apart to realize, and it’s not that Bucky doesn’t believe him or has ever doubted that fact, because he does believe Steve and never doubted those feelings. Love between them has always been a given, ever since Steve was a scrappy little runt back in Brooklyn who Bucky continually had to pull out of fight after fight and patch back up just to watch it happen all over again. It was never about doubting that one, true and solid fact.

“Not so _newsflash_ here, Pal,” Bucky begins, pausing in his steps and turning back to look Steve in the eye as he continues, “I love you too, Steven Grant Rogers, probably more than I should, maybe even more than your punk-ass deserves right now, but that doesn’t mean I gotta like you, and I really don’t like you at the moment.”

He turns then and continues back up the path towards the cabin with Steve sputtering after him.

“Bucky… Buck! Come on, Buck…. Sam, you gotta…"

“Hey, don’t look at me,” he hears Sam say, cutting Steve off. “For once, and it pains me to admit this, but for once I happen to agree with the guy. What the hell were you thinking, man?”

Behind him, Bucky hears a distinctive noise which he can only liken to Sam smacking Steve upside the head after piecing together what was happening (or had happened), and thinks in that moment, _perhaps Sam isn’t so bad_. Thank God for Sam (not that he plans on admitting that out loud any time soon), because it is exhausting being the only person keeping Steve from doing stupid shit, in any God forsaken lifetime.


End file.
